Garment Factory Repairs

If, as the article suggests, the average cost of factory repairs is $250,000, the total cost to make all of these inspected factories safe will exceed $400 million.

In addition, the universe of factories these programs have monitored is much less than the total of 5,000 to 6,000 factories and facilities we estimate to be producing garments for export. The system still includes a lot of risk for workers and companies in the facilities that fall outside the scope of these agreements.

And while the International Finance Corporation talks about making low-cost loans, it is demanding that Western brands and retailers guarantee these loans, an unlikely result. The real issue is who is going to pay these huge repair and replacement costs.

What Bangladesh needs is a global fund that pools resources from the global brands, local manufacturers, Western governments and the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. Acting alone, not one of these entities has the will or resources to get the job done. But together they may just succeed.